Dumpsters, particularly when located in places where they are available to many persons having need to dispose of waste material, have caused problems for the owner or lessee. Unauthorized persons have utilized the availability of the dumpster to dispose of their waste, often leaving the owner or lessee with insufficient capacity to dispose of his refuse. Such problems have led to the dumpster owners incorporating a hasp and lock so that only authorized users could open the lid and dispose of their trash. However such preventive means have caused difficulties and added costs to the disposal method. The contractor responsible for removing the garbage usually utilizes a pair of tines which interact with a pair of receiving sockets to lift and invert the dumpster, allowing the refuse to fall into the garbage truck. When the user has installed a hasp and lock it is obvious that the driver of the garbage truck must first get out of the truck and open the lock and then get back into the truck, lift and invert the dumpster, return it to its rightful location and then the driver must again leave the truck to relock the dumpster to prevent unauthorized use. Obviously such actions take time and add to the cost of waste removal. Moreover their is a need for the driver to retain duplicate keys for all the dumpsters on his route.
In the past many locking mechanisms have been invented to limit access to the dumpster to authorized users and yet permit the emptying of the dumpster after lifting and inverting without requiring the opening of the locking mechanism. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,530, issued on Jan. 8, 1980, discloses a lid locking system which is operable for emptying when the dumpster is inverted and the weight of the dumpster operates a release. Similarly U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,584, issued May 22, 1979, discloses a catch mechanism which opens a frame when the dumpster is inverted. The closure lid is attached to the frame so that the dumpster can be emptied when the frame opens due to the inverting of the trash container or the lid can be separated from the frame and the lid opened to dispose of trash. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,588, issued on Dec. 14, 1982, a dumpster is disclosed in which the insertion of the fork lift tines into the receiving socket, operates a latch mechanism, permitting the hinged front of the container to swing free. Thus, it can be seen that the concept of having dual operating locking mechanisms is not novel. However the prior art devices all had major and significant drawbacks or deficiencies. They were expensive or difficult to incorporate into existing dumpsters without making major modifications to the body or structure. Moreover, some of the prior art devices required a plurality of locks or could not be used with dumpsters having lids made of plastic, which was not uncommon.